MTFCA Forum

I know I read a little scandal was associated with Henry’s drivers. As I recall Henry had a mistress and to avoid an open scandal he employed her husband as a driver. I know I read this somewhere, it’s beyond my skill to make it up, so it must be somewhere. Anyone with a better memory?

Remember this is NOT a Toyota. With all metal bodies the metal can be stretched or shrunk to adjust the panel fitment. I guess you could do the same with wood construction. Just remove the skin and added or remove wood in the appropriate spots. I’m certain as long as the door close, Ford in 97 years...

Over the past 45 years I have heard many horror stories of fiber gears failing yet I have used one in the coupe for at least thirty years with no problems. I suspect all fiber gears and their usage conditions are not all equal. 1. Most confirmed failures were in the early 2000s, whereas mine was man...

I found a nice hood and it arrived over the weekend.
Thanks Phillip and MTFCA

Hard to choose just five. AFACEAD5-ADD5-4C1C-B88C-11A46CABB9EE.jpeg 59FE7C88-C662-4741-9075-B646BF6B86ED.jpeg 36DE3914-F29C-4C4C-B31D-2A6B15BC917F.jpeg 085EC111-C57F-4AFF-B4A2-DB5F44C7A699.jpeg BAF52CDF-DC1F-440E-AB04-2D877541B846.jpeg Norm it was Debbie (King) Francis who blew a low band drum.

Maybe I didn’t make it clear enough but one cheap converter did not function and did not charge the iPhone. I made a guess as to why.

I can recall several articles on this subject with lots of mixed results. On the recent Golden Gate tour my phone ran out of poop and was stuck. So I need a solution. My first effort was a cheap plug in lighter to USB socket and it did not function. No charge showed on the phone display and it took ...

In these days of Bar codes labeling almost everything and bean counters in complete control, it’s easy to know what is actually built and sold. When the T was built, things were much more haphazard, so I guess the 3% income tax was computed directly from the ledgers. Even in the 1960’s Lotus built a...

In these days of Bar codes labeling almost everything and bean counters in complete control, it’s easy to know what was actually built and sold. When the T was built, things were much more haphazard so I guess the 3% income tax was computed directly from the ledgers. Even in the 1960’s Lotus built a...

Maybe it’s me but the answer seems relatively simple to my way of thinking. The sum of the number of cars (15007033) plus the replacement motor built between 1927 and 1941 (about 330000) plus the motors built in england that didn’t use US numbers plus the number built in Canada. All these can be fou...

I use an Etimer on the Coupe and it has a self adjusting mode.
It’s truly a great device and makes the Coupe easy to start and run faultlessly.

I first had contact with Stan in 1990 when I decided my 1924 Coupe needed a Ruckstell axle. Stan had advertized the necessary bits in The Vintage Ford and he agreed to ship them down to San Diego and then offered phone advice on the assembly. That axle is on the Coupe to this day. He told me later t...

If you want to see some detailed pictures of a 1909 Model T you could do worse that search for on this forum for Resurrection of a 1909 Most everything on the vehicle was either authentic with many detailed pictures or a clear statement of what was thought to be done in the 1950s and during my work ...

I see that Lang’s have them on their web site but at $40 each.
I’d be tempted to use old tubes.

Wanted

I’m looking for an engine hood for a 1914 Model T. It will be aluminum and have no louvers. Must be in good condition with minimal wear.
Call me (619-922-3954) or email (tonybowker@aol.com) me if you have anything with a picture, location and asking price

Why do you think a fuse will help? Let’s say the motor is running and the fuse is located in the battery feed. Does mater if by the switch or hidden behind the firewall. Now you get a shirt to ground and the fuse blows. If the motor is running, the generator will still put out current and the car wi...

If you want insert bearings (why?) then you really should add oil pressure. Then to take advantage of this you need a full flow filter. This can be done without any external changes to the block but is much more convenient to add one externally. This of course may require external links piping. I us...

Jim, I agree with your post but just what and where is the “brass ring gear”?

From my personal experience and all the technical information I have found, magnets tend to deteriorate with age and usage. So sorry guys, I don’t think the Model T magneto improves with age. This was a typical opinion I found in Wikipedia. John Eaden, Manchester, UK A horseshoe magnet is made by he...

The description of the last day was held up with technical problem downloading the pictures from Karen’s equipment. I of course just use my iPhone for everything videos, pictures, web site updates and the occasional phone call. Thanks Karen for your pictures and persistence getting me the pictures, ...

Day 3 Today we drove over to Pioneer town which is really a western movie set with two restaurants. We only had five cars today as one had a persistent misfire and the other run out of tires but we still had couple of tubes between us. The meal was perfect, who knew that ribs could be that good. 974...

Karen supplied many more pictures she took on the first day.

: Mtfcsd President with his 1921 touring

: Mtfcsd tour chair with his 1925 touring

Day 2 proved to be problem day. We drove over the mountains from 29 Palms to Amboy. There we visited the cafe and saw much Route 66 memorabilia. AB1F6682-4209-4CCE-8967-BBF90B101B51.jpeg C6EA4BE7-56DA-4B18-8A21-42B2AEA1595B.jpeg We have seven Model Ts on the tour and four broke down. Early in day on...

Model Ts from clubs are on a tour to the Joshua Tree area in Southern Cal. During the day, by the way the weather was just perfect, we saw several wrecked cars but no Model Ts. The only Ts were the seven cars on the tour. 4002CE91-9F42-4C5E-8639-763FD54C1039.jpeg The roads into the park are all pave...

I bought a 10 pound capacity digital scale from Harbor Frieght and was disappointed as the repeatability was not very good, certainly outside the specification. I traced the problem to positioning of the item on the scale. When I weighed something in the middle it would read differently than if the ...

The regular Ford running boards are mounted with a block of wood under metal Board and the fender goes underneath. On the 09 there were different size bolts for mounting the boards on the supports and smaller mounting the fenders. I’ve forgot what size they were except the fender ones were smaller. ...

Martynn besides the.extra Hyatt bearing on the left side and no flange on the washer between the bell housing and the differential housing there is something wrong with the brass plate between the roller bearing and the open end of the bell housing. There is a large iron disc between the open end of...

The 1909 Model T sold to a gentleman in Canada. He had it professionally moved and seemed to have no problems at the boarder. It was a fun project to restore though not very profitable. Kim Dobbins told me this going into it so my eyes were wide open. Had a charged myself minimum wage ($15/hr), I wo...

No nut or split pin??

Over the years I’ve had many Model T starter switches fail so now I always install a starter solenoid. This way I can achieve two objectives 1 I use the solenoid from the Model A and to date never had one fail on either my car or any customers car. 2. I can interlock to the ignition switch so it doe...

Some early blocks were missing the two drain holes in the valve tappet area. If that’s the case as it was one one my customers 1914 car, they can be drilled thru the bottom with the inspection pan removed.

Thursday afternoon was the busiest time. Friday was ok but the report of the South building being sold out was false. The two north buildings were less than half sold out. Many left Friday evening and Saturday was very quiet. I sold nothing on Saturday morning and left about noon. Not sure it’s wort...

I’m on my way to Chickasha but was surprised by the amount of snow between Descanso and Jacumba. We had to follow a CHP Officer at 35mph over Interstate 8. This the truck loaded with stuff. The second picture is the mess of the front yard since we dug up most of the driveway prior to our planned imp...

In the early 90s my daughter and husband had a Jeep Cherokee and towed their speedster (Ricky) on a small two wheel trailer all over the western US and Canada with no problems. The car and trailer weighed less than 3000 pounds. I wouldn’t have been so comfortable with an enclosed trailer weighing ov...

I got tired of fighting the road gear on my original speedometer for the 24 Coupe. So I bought a new setup from John Stoltz at T Ranch. It arrived within a couple of days and I slightly modified the original mounting on the dashboard of the Coupe. It looks great and works perfectly😊😊 2D0C49B2-2F18-4...

On the Model T two piece timer the drive is from the camshaft and the body of the timer is held in place by the nut on the end of the camshaft. Thus the two screws that hold on the cover have to be from the front of the timer. There is no way the device shown with the screws at the rear, will fit a ...

Tightening the top is messy. First it should have pads either side running from the front bow to the rear bow. The front bow should be wrapped in a waterproof material and the other three in black muslin cut on the cross grain. Even so the top can sag. Norm is correct that it can be tightened along ...

Martin, I realize it’s too late now but it’s best to buy parts from them through eBay. If they delay the eBay order then you can get eBay to put pressure on them for timely delivery.
You might contact your credit card company to see if they can exert some gentle pressure.

Normally folks list stuff they either want or will bring to Chickasha, nothing so far this year. With me selling the Town Car and the restoration of the 1909 Touring complete and sold I really don’t need much except a few tires. However I have quite a pile of stuff for sale. Six nice wood wheels wit...

This may confuse the issue but I have a picture of Kim Dobbins original 1910 touring top irons. The picture shows the iron which was different from my 1909, which I suspect was a not completely accurate reproduction. 941C25AC-80A1-41BA-8803-48DCC1BD2269.jpeg The bolts you see going into the body are...

On my postings the yellow triangle means the picture is too large. The site moderators told me the problem had been resolved and it hasn’t happened to me since. If your problem occurred recently then you may have exceeded the new limit. Try making your pictures smaller. On my laptop and my iPhone, I...

I’ll go if possible
I need info.

We found the problem. My customer wrote: I dropped the tank off at Kirks Radiator to have it boiled out. Kirk the owner looked down in side and the samples and said that substance is Polishing Compound. That makes sense to me. The tank was polished at the manufacturer and they probably didn’t have t...

I had a closer look at the contamination and it’s finer that I thought from the photo. It’s more like fine black dust. I suspect Norm is correct in that something was in the tank when my customer bought it. He has been using a filter which allowed it to function for the past few weeks.

A customer had a fuel problem a few days ago and called for help. Eventually we drained the gas tank and found this fibrous stuff in the tank. CED6BB37-5AA0-4EBF-972B-876B3521721A.jpeg We have no idea what it is. The tank was new about six months ago made by a local company. it has worked fine until...

As I remember I was on that tour and the pass was closed near the top as some damn money grabbing company had placed a pipeline right across the surface of the road. Unbelievable What power these companies have and abuse just for a few bucks. Another interesting place was the “moon” rocks just south...

The non-demountable wheels are not the usual variety as they have six bolts rather than four usually associated withe Ford. Haynes and similar wheels.
The Ford demountable wheels became available in the late teens, does anyone know who made the six bolt version and when the became available.

I assembled the engine on this speedster pickup some years ago. The owner likes to fiddle around with it having modified the body several time and tried several carbs and intake manifolds. The mechanicals seemed to have settled down during the last few months but the pickup body it still subject to ...

I bought the coupe in 1976 and as far as I know it has never been tampered with over the years.

This is Ricky which my son-in-law and I built in 1992 before they had kids. It’s been updated a little over the years but is still fun to drive. Last major trip out was the MTFCA Tour in Richmond.

: Ricky

Back in November, just before I left my beloved Barn, my coupe died just as I arrived home from a tour into the upper desert. Initially we thought it was somewhere in the rear axle as through the transmission inspection hole we could see the brake drum rotating. As I was planning a move from Ramkna ...

Putting a Ruckstell in a vehicle other than a Model T might be somewhat challenging but installing a Planator in the drive shaft of another vehicle should be fairly straightforward. They often come up for sale for a few hundred dollars and all the gears except two are Model T parts. I had a couple o...

I’m halfway there with my vaccinations

This was part of the receipt from one dealer.

: Model T warranty in 1920

I take “snaps” to remind me where I see stuff and sure enough every so often I get a good picture.
This manifold display was taken last year at the Lincoln Annual meeting at the Smith Museum.

: Model T manifolds

I did the same as Dan, not had a problem since.

Against my advice Lucky Howard Genrich bored Lucky #7 out to 0.125” on his last rebuild and it worked. I said he was lucky and Howard agreed. By the way that’s why Egge have that size pistons

When we built the Speedster in 1992 we found a SureMike crankshaft for the project. We had it checked for cracks by using die and found a small surface imperfection. I spoke to Bruce and Lee and both said that most all original cranks had such problems. We decided to move ahead using the SureMike. I...

As much as I love my Model T Toohobby and everything that goes with it, I find that it is taking up more time now than I have available. I am struggling to keep up with the everyday basics of life just now in these most trying times. Cleaning and cooking and helping maintaining my home. The garden a...

Absolutely nothing☹️ I’ve been working on my new (to me) house. Sanded the floors, some new drywall and refurbished the kitchen cabinets. 0951552F-2CD4-4169-A479-4DFE68EFCE45.jpeg 575DF1B4-D6C6-428B-A5DB-AED41B9EF999.jpeg I hope to move all the stuff in the workshop after the house move and resume T...

Changed.

Larry. I respect your opinion but in this case if I agreed with you, we would both be wrong. Case in point. When the CDO first appeared in April 1901 it had no brakes at the rear wheels. The braking was on the transmission just like the Model T. By 1903 the Oldsmobile designers realized this arrange...

If you look back in The Vintage Ford, there was an article about a father/son speedster project which cost a total of $250. Mind you the Father (was it Don Black) had some generous friends.

I believe Jeff answered the question correctly though I doubt it was updated for ten years as by 1929 Ford was well into the Model A production.
In 1919 Ford still had shareholders, so all the shareholders owned all the cars until they were sold. Using this logic, I own all Dell computers. Ha Ha

The modern Rocky mountain brakes are slightly different than the period brakes. The period brake linings were pivoted at the rear. The effect of this when driving forward is for the top half of the lining to tighten but the lower half loosen. Naturally in reverse the effect is the opposite, so the b...

Thanks Les for some more details. The ingenuity of machinists always amazes me.

Sent you an email

I tend to call my Ts by the year of manufacture, so the 1909 touring was “09” and the 1914 touring is called the “14”
However the 1924 Coupe is known as “The Coupe” but the 1915 Speedster is “Ricky”. The latter was defined by my daughter and son-in-law.

I guess that the aluminum cylinder with the hole is the pickup and I believe I can see a filter inside.a couple of questions which I suspect many would like to know more details. Is the pump as low as the pan will allow? How did you connect the gear to the rear of the camshaft? How does the oil that...

I can usually tell if it’s an A crank by the “bumps” on the side of the pan.

5,000,000 is a Coupe and belongs to the Smith Museum in Lincoln, though I believe it is currently on loan to the MTFCA Museum in Richmond.
I don’t know if it was one of Bruce’s jokes but he once told me he knew of the location of three 10,000,000 cars

Last weekend I went on a 100 mile run in the local mountains and after trailering home it wouldn’t drive off the trailer. No low, reverse or high. When in high I could stall the motor by depressing reverse. So it decided the failure was after the transmission. So on Tuesday I removed the rear axle a...

I have been involved with two accidents in antique vehicles over the last 46 years. The first was in the 1915 speedster when the front radius rod broke just behind the axle. I lost all steering and we turn right into a tree. My wife had the seat belt on but slid under the belt and her feet hit the w...

When I was restoring the 1909, I found a crack behind the cam gear. Fixing it using loc-n-stitch was $1000 so I asked around for a replacement block but found that a rebuilt 09 block fixed correctly was worth around $6000. So I went with the lok-n-stitch on top of the regular rebore, hardened valve ...

I have had an electric shut off on the 1914 touring since we restored it in 2003 and it’s worked flawless every since.
Of course now I’ve written that, it will fail within a couple of weeks

I also found about twenty copies of a blueprint showing a 1904 CDO Model B in plan and elevation view. Most are now spoken for but I have a couple remaining.

As I remember the one Ed Archer owned was an original vehicle that had been used by tourists in San Francisco. I remember the 10 cent charge painted on the doors. It may have been the car he rescued from some local canyon. I believe he restored it. I wonder where it is now?

From memory, the high limit end play on the crank is 0.006” but I’ve had engines in for rebuilds up to 0.014” so you should be ok for awhile As an aside, I remember in Milt Webb’s tuning book, he estimated that when run at high speed, he figured the wear could be as high as 0.001”per thousand miles....

Mark is the winner

I am moving and clearing out a lot of stuff. One interesting find is a set of four drawings (each about 30”x20”) for the wood in a 17-22 roadster. They are available for the postage.
I don’t see any name or copyright on the drawings.

When I had access to a mill, I use to cut about 1/8” off the lifter boss so I could more easily adjust the lifters. It didn’t seem to do any harm. If Terry really is writing about the valve guide, I can’t see 1/4” missing causing too much harm. I suppose it could be welded and ream out but knowing m...

I find it best not to try any short cuts when re-installing the hogs head in the car. This includes removing the exhaust manifold, loosening the bolts below the UJ housing, nothing loose above the opening such as a key in the ignition and ANYTHING in the way. I also use the custom tool to hold the n...

Frank surely you mean non-demountable wheels in your first sentence. From my limited experience I didn’t need to remove a non-demountable wheel as I only suffered one flat and I changed the tube with the wheel still on the car. Mind you I prefer demountable rims on a car used for longer tours. 😊 I d...

Les, what was the problem with the Ford rods?

I expanded the very first picture and there appears to be a rusty line and a clear line around the hub. To me this implies the hub is moving with respect to the spokes. If the nuts are tight then is time for new spokes. I made a spoke press and have rebuilt several demountable wheels quite successfu...

My 09 came with a Heinz coil box but the build sheet indicated it should be a Kingston. I found one in Michigan and had to drive to his home to pick it up (see this months Vintage Ford).
When I arrived home it fitted perfectly

It was the same thread for the whole of the Model T production from my 1909 Touring thru to my friends 1927 touring

By the way the two bolts should have holes in the heads and then wired together

On my 14 Touring I can remove and replace the motor without removing the steering column but I have to leave the starter off. It’s tight but I’ve done it a couple of times. I use a lifting eye in #4 for the vertical lift and then switch to one in #1 for the vertical lift. I also helped a friend with...

As I remember the valve on the Chevy rims are at a different location to the valve on the Model T rims.
I found this to my cost when the spare on the 17 Touring was a Chevy and all the rest Ford.

If the car is wired as an original Model T and you didn’t turn on the ignition or start the engine during the charging process, then you did no damage. My reasoning is simple if you follow the wiring diagram, as there will be no path for an excess voltage or current to reach the generator (the engin...

There are at least three way of looking inside the guts of a T motor besides pulling the cylinder head and only requires simple tools. First it the bottom pan, yes I know it’s 15 small bolts but it’s easy enough. From here you can see and measure the end play in the crank and rods. If they are withi...

Jerry’s idea worked just fine. I had a couple of spare tappets so I even had the correct screw and nut. So I replaced the valve, adjusted the tappet, not too tight, and buttoned it all up. It runs but now has an exhaust leak. I can fix that another day.

Thanks Jerry

Great idea.
I’ll give that a try when I get more enthusiastic.

The speedster wasn’t running good when I went to it a couple of weeks ago in preparation for the annual speedster run. There didn’t seem too much compression on a couple of cylinders. So I removed the head and I wasn’t too happy as there was lots crud in a couple of cylinders which settled under a c...

According to the build sheet for my 1909, the number was the second engine stamped on 4 October 1909 and it was shipped to a customer later that day !
By the way an abridged version of the engine dating is available on this web site under Encyclopedia.

I built up a speedster 4 valve rajo for a customer and the block didn’t have the two oil drain holes. The oil built up and would leak out at car shows much to the isners annoyance. So we bought a long drill, removed the inspection pan and drilled the two missing holes from the bottom. They may not b...

Be careful as to the order of installing the rivets on the front cross member

: Installing rivets on front crossmember

When I restored the 1909 Touring, the teeth on the quadrant eere very worn. Also it appeared to be a 1914 style column at 56” long. So I made the decision to cut it down to the correct 50” and replace the quadrant. There were no very difficult problems though installing the two brass rivets to hold ...

Just today on Facebook, Stan Howe recounted how a coupe he now owns was used into the fifties by a local Montana couple.

I don’t believe moving the hole on either the crank, dog or crankshaft will not do what you wrote in the first thread. There are two compression on each revolution of the crankshaft. It follows that there will be one compression for each half turn of the crankshaft. You can move the alignment as to ...

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